Facts Don’t Care About Your Feelings

It may sound harsh but it’s true. Facts don’t care about your feelings. Feelings may sound like “I eat pretty healthy” or “I feel like I’m not making any progress.” Facts sound like “I eat protein at every meal” and “I’m down 2 inches”

Feelings keep us where we are. Facts drive action. And action gets results.

It doesn’t matter that you FEEL like you’re doing everything right; you aren’t.

If you’re not making progress, that means that something isn’t working. We give our feelings too much authority. Just because we feel something doesn’t make it true. And making decisions based on how you feel is a sure way to stay exactly where you are.

Facing reality is the only way to fix the problem.

“I feel like I eat pretty healthy most of the time, but nothing is changing.” That’s great, but that’s about the same as me saying “I feel like I just filled my gas tank up, but now it’s on empty.” You might feel that way, but that doesn’t make it true.

“I feel like I haven’t made any progress.” Well, you’ve lost 2 lbs & 3 inches in the past 4 weeks and have gotten stronger on every lift. Does that mean no progress? No - it all has to do with our expectations.

Expectations drive perception & perception drives reality.

If I FEEL LIKE I should have lost 8 lbs by now, then 2 lbs is going to be perceived as a failure. So then I think I haven’t made progress. If I FEEL LIKE I’m eating healthy, then I EXPECT to lose weight. So, when I don’t, it makes me think that there’s something wrong with me and not with what I’m doing.

We have to confront reality.

Not to punish ourselves, but to inform ourselves. We can’t know what to do unless we know if what we’ve been doing is working. If it’s working, I’ll keep going. If not, then I know I need to make a change - either with what I’m doing or how well I’m doing it (most of us fall into the second camp).

We have to objectively measure our progress. It can’t be subjective.

“Pretty good” isn’t a measurement of diddly squat. It’s either I did it or I didn’t do it; our feelings don’t matter here. Because even if it feels crappy that I didn’t do it or I didn’t make progress, burying my head in the sand is a sure-fire way to stay exactly where I am. If we want change, we need to face reality, however uncomfortable, and let that determine what we do next.

And that’s the key: facts drive action. Action gets results. Don’t avoid the facts to spare your feelings.

I recorded a whole podcast on the importance of tracking progress & how to do it well.